All the latest news, reviews and information on the Apple iPad
Apple has announced a press conference for next week.
The firm has issued invites to an event in San Francisco, which included an image of an iPad with the message 'Come see what 2011 will be the year of'.
The iPad 2 has been subject to several rumours over the past few weeks, including reports of the device doubling in resolution and claims that it will feature a dual-core processor.
The event will be held on March 2 at 10am PST (6pm GMT).
Toshiba has named its upcoming tablet the Folio 100, according to a report by Notebook Italia, and some further spec details have emerged too.
The slate, which is the company’s great hope of carving a slice out of the market currently dominated by the fast-selling iPad, had previously been referred to by Notebook Italia as the SmartPad (when the site leaked images of the device last week). Which we think is actually a better name than the Folio 100, as the latter sounds a bit stuffy to us.
At any rate, we already knew that Nvidia Tegra 2 technology was rumoured to be powering the Android tablet, but according to Notebook Italia, it will also boast 16GB of memory, wi-fi and 3G, along with a USB port and an HDMI port.
A 10.1 inch display was also confirmed by the site, along with a 1 megapixel webcam, and seven hours worth of battery life is promised. The device should run Android 2.2.
All this should be officially confirmed, or not, by Toshiba at this week’s IFA show over in Berlin. Along with, hopefully, some indication of the tablet’s release date.
Samsung will also be announcing its Galaxy Tab at IFA, and these will be the first of many tablets to attempt to take a bite out of Apple’s market share.
There is going to be so much more of this, putting your nice new Apple iPad into a case or slot or docking station which contains some form of keyboard. Apple Insider has spotted one coming over from China, already in the UK at £60, and on its way to the US.
Almost every blog that has written it up has jeered that people just cannot forget the form factor of yesterday and are trying to make the lovely new iPad look like a rubbishy old Netbook. Far from it. Apple itself came out with a docking station and keyboard at launch. The only step Apple hasn’t completed, despite hinting at it, is to make the keyboard part of the case you carry around with you and that’s what a swathe of new companies are sure to try.
We all know that typing speed on an iPad touch screen, or any touch screen for that matter, is roughly 50% that of a proper physical keyboard. So when you are at a workstation kind of job, sitting typing, it’s better to have a keyboard. Once the iPad comes down a little in price, corporations will buy them in large number especially if their they can make corporate Apps speak to /run on it. Of course keeping track of all those iPads which people will then take home with them is perhaps another matter.
We do see the issue with putting an alien wraparound on your lovely new iPad, because if you just need to send one email the touch keyboard is plenty good enough. But there will be some people who never sit still and yet have a ton of typing chores to get through, and a carry case version is perhaps for them.
The pictured device apparently comes from Shenzhen Paoluy Silicone Technology, and has the catchy name of the BL-BKB76. The two devices talk to each using Bluetooth, naturally (the Apple one is physically connected through the dock) and can be powered by a single iPad connector.
This particular device became discovered because Apple Insider and other blogs keep an eye on the FCC approval requests and because this uses wireless Bluetooth connection, it has to be screened by the US regulatory authority, which shows it is on the way to the US.
The overall effect of this particular design is to turn the iPad into something more like a clamshell styled Netbook, a little like the iPad carry case, but with a keyboard thrown in. The device has already been seen on shopping site Gearzap for sale in the UK, at £60.
The device manual claims a standby time of 100 days and working battery time of 90 hours, but people have already tested it at around 45 hours, about a week’s work. It would be irritating to have to remember to charge two things, instead of one, even if a charge lasted a full week on the keyboard. It charges through a USB iPod connector cable.
Having said all this, the iPad can be used almost any Bluetooth keyboard and Apple certainly has those, so then you only need the charging dock to stand the iPad up.
The launch of the first iPad contender is impending. The Samsung Galaxy Tab is scheduled to launch in Germany on September 2, and it is assumed that it will be available in the United States sometime this autumn as well. Since the obvious comparison is Galaxy Tab vs. iPad, let's take a look at how the two tablets stack up against each other.
Display
The iPad has a 9.7-inch touchscreen display capable of 1024x768 resolution. As the smaller size mentioned above implies, the Galaxy Tab display is smaller. The Samsung tablet uses a 7-inch display originally thought to be limited to 800x600 resolution, but newer speculation is that it is 1024x600.
Processor
Apple designed a custom A4 processor for the iPad. It is a high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip running at 1GHz. Sources report that the Galaxy Tab will run on a similar 1GHz ARM processor.
Operating System
While the iPad runs a version of Apple's iOS, the Galaxy Tab will run on its primary mobile OS competitor--Android. The iPad is currently stuck on yesterday's iOS with version 3.2.2. It is slated to get an update to iOS 4 very soon, which will add functionality like nested folders and multitasking. The Galaxy Tab will reportedly come out of the gate with the cutting edge Android 2.2, a.k.a. "Froyo".
Apps
Both the Apple and Android app stores have more than enough variety to meet the needs of virtually any user. Granted, the Apple App Store has crossed the 250,000 apps mark, while the Android Market lags somewhere around 100,000, but at some point it becomes like the Cold War nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union: how many times do you need to be able to blow up the whole planet?
Features
Many of the features are similar, but this is one area where the Galaxy Tab doesn't just compare, but can set the bar for what to expect in the next-generation iPad. Based on the video, it appears that the Galaxy Tab has both front and rear-facing cameras, and is capable of video chat. The Galaxy Tab is also expected to support Adobe Flash, and possibly be able to play HD video.
Intangibles
When it comes to making an actual purchase, it rarely boils down to comparing spec sheets. There are intangible factors that come into play. How much does it cost? Which wireless providers support the device?
The Galaxy Tab will have the benefit of riding the wave of tablet demand created by the Apple iPad, but it is also at a disadvantage compared with the three million plus unit jumpstart the iPad has. Still, there are people who love Apple and iOS, and there are people who love Android. The Galaxy Tab looks to be a very capable device and will at least offer a worthy challenger in the tablet market.
